1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector which is used for, e.g., an eco-friendly car such as a hybrid car and an electric car, in particular, to a connector which may be potentially employed for a power harness used for transmitting a large amount of power.
2. Description of the Related Art
A power harness is used for connecting between devices such as between a motor and an inverter or between an inverter and a battery in, e.g., a hybrid car or an electric car, which has made significant progress in recent years, for transmitting a large amount of power, and a connector in a two-divided structure composed of, e.g., a male connector portion provided with a male terminal as well as a first terminal housing for housing the male terminal and a female connector portion provided with a female terminal connected to the male terminal as well as a second terminal housing for housing the female terminal is provided to one end of the power harness (see, e.g., JP-A-2009-070754). This connector is configured so that a front end portion of the first terminal housing of the male connector portion is housed in the second terminal housing of the second connector portion when the two connector portions are fitted to each other. Hereinafter, male and female (male side and female side) as a connector indicate a condition when fitting a terminal housing.
In recent years, all components in such an eco-friendly car have been lightened in weight in order to improve energy saving performance, and size reduction is desired as one of effective means of reducing weight.
A technique of Japanese patent No. 4037199 is an example of a known technique.
The technique described in Japanese patent No. 4037199 is an electric connection structure for vehicle in which connecting terminals of plural phases of conductive member led out from a vehicle driving motor are connected to connecting terminals of plural phases of power line cable led out from an inverter for driving the motor, a connecting terminal of each phase of the conductive member overlaps a corresponding connecting terminal of each phase of the power line cable, an insulating member is arranged on a surface opposite to an overlapping surface of the connecting terminals, and the overlapped connecting terminals of each phase are tightened and fixed to the insulating members in an overlapping direction by a single bolt provided at a position to penetrate therethrough.
In other words, the technique of Japanese patent No. 4037199 is a connection structure in which plural connecting terminals and insulating members compose a laminated structure and the connecting terminals are fixed and electrically connected all together at contact points by tightening a single bolt in an overlapping direction (or a lamination direction) while plural contact points as overlapping surfaces between the connecting terminals are sandwiched, and this kind of configuration is more effective in easy downsizing than the technique of JP-A-2009-070754.